My to-do list has grown to Brobdingnagian proportions.
There are so many items undone that this morning I decided to try a new approach. Without consulting anything but the top of my head, I divided the things I needed/wantedto do in two groups:
1. accomplish things that are most important
2. begin/continue things that are important
Using this bifurcated method, I was able to resume working on the revision of my textbook (I can't finish it in one day, but I can continue work on it); went to lunch (accomplishing a necessary task.)
Back from lunch, I shifted exclusively to tasks that can be broken up in segments, like attacking my out of control email inbox, voice mail, web surfing. These brief, daily sessions then left me free to focus on something I wanted to accomplish without interruption, namely feeding my blog with an item about an approach to productivity. I'd count that as a two-fer.
The rest of my day includes some important tasks that have to be accomplished : visit my friend Julie in the hospital, dinner, exercise, read, family time. I can alternate these with tasks that I can begin or continue, like more email, voice mail, doing expenses, continue drafting a column, maybe even a little TV and web surfing.
There was a time when I replaced my to-do list with a done list, which for a while made me feel very productive. Ultimately, a lot of tasks were falling through the task, and I ditched the method.
And so begins another experiment in time management: dividing your life between what you must accomplish today and those tasks that you can begin or continue. The first draws a hard line; the second provides more freedom, and more important, less pressure, by acknowledging that not every tasks on your list can be finished in a day.
Sounds like you should add David Allen's "Getting Things Done" to your list of books to read. It's helped me immensely!
Posted by: Eric Beavers | April 10, 2006 at 06:00 PM
Such a good writing, or by I saw for the first time. I'm quite happy, you are a good writer
Posted by: Lebron Shoes | May 05, 2011 at 03:46 AM
The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for circumstances they want, and if they cannot find them, make them.
Posted by: Onitsuka Tiger | November 11, 2011 at 01:50 AM
Do you love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff5 life is made of.
Posted by: Air Max Fusions | November 11, 2011 at 01:58 AM